Government shutdown live updates: Johnson says GOP agrees on new spending bill

The pen may not be mightier than the sword, but it still has the power to wound. How else to explain the extraordinary remarks of the former Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, this week in which he revealed how stung he’d been by an editorial in The Times?

You’d think Russia’s elite had enough problems on their hands at the moment. Roaring inflation and interest rates. Sanctions. Labour shortages. The spiralling cost of war. The mounting casualties in Ukraine. But, no, it was an editorial penned by an unknown hand in London that really got under the skin of Putin’s close ally, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s security council.

Congress did not act on Trump’s demand to raise the debt ceiling, a politically difficult task, before he takes office on 20 January.

The late-night vote in the Senate capped a frantic week that saw president-elect Donald Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk defeat an initial bipartisan deal, throwing Congress into disarray.

The final version stripped out some provisions championed by Democrats, who accused Republicans of caving in to pressure from an unelected billionaire who has no experience in government.

The package had earlier cleared the Republican-controlled House of Representatives with bipartisan support.

The US Congress has just passed a spending legislation in a down-to-the wire burst of activity that will avert a destabilising government shutdown ahead of the busy holiday travel season.

Democratic-controlled Senate in an 85-11 vote passed the bill to continue government funding 38 minutes after it expired at midnight (5am GMT Saturday). The government did not invoke shutdown procedures in the interim.

The bill will now be sent it to White House, where President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law.

Chuck Schumer said that the Senate would vote and pass the continuing resolution by the deadline of 12.01am ET.

“Democrats and Republicans have reached — just reached an agreement that will allow us to pass the CR tonight before the midnight deadline,” he said.

Elon Musk has described the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as the country’s saviour, sparking calls from Berlin for the US billionaire to “stay out” of their politics.

In a post on X, Mr Musk’s social media platform, the mogul wrote that “only the AfD can save Germany”. His message topped a video, which he retweeted, of a German right-wing influencer, Naomi Seibt, known for her closeness to the AfD and for denying human-caused climate change.

The AfD is running second in opinion polls and may be able to thwart either a centre-right or centre-left majority, but Germany’s mainstream, more centrist parties have vowed to shun support from the AfD at a national level.

You are living in one of the finest private addresses in DC – the only Lutyens built house in North America – with its fabulous art collection, swimming pool, tennis court and hot and cold running servants; with your chauffeur driven Bentley, manicured gardens – and you’re right next door to the vice president’s official residence on Massachusetts Avenue. Trading that for your semi in Balham, or wherever your civil service salary has allowed you to buy, is quite the readjustment.

And our embassy in DC has just been totally refurbished at a cost of tens of millions of pounds. Yes, there can still be a bit of a sewery smell on the lower ground floor, and the fireplace in the drawing room when lit invariably smokes out the whole house so that guests have to retreat to the terrace. But these are small details.

That earned a rebuke from Sen Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who will be chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

“It’s not true and it’s been widely shown that it’s not true,” he told The Independent on Tuesday.

Eric Garcia has the story.

The Senate is headed for a long night.

The upper chamber is expected to pass the government spending bill that cleared the House earlier today, but they have yet to vote on it.

Asked about whether the Senate will vote before midnight, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer didn’t quite give a straight answer.

Here’s what he said, courtesy of CSPAN.